Banana pancakes

2 small (or 1 large) ripe bananas

100g oats, ground in a coffee grinder

1 egg

100ml coconut milk

50ml water

¼ tsp cinnamon

½ tsp baking powder

Put all ingredients into the bowl of a food processer and whizz until you have a uniform batter. (You may need to scrape down the sides and whizz again.)

Heat a frying pan and wipe around the base with some rapeseed oil (or your favourite cooking oil).

I use a dessert spoon to measure out the size of the pancakes, but you could use a bigger spoon if you like. (I think if you wanted to make a full size pancake, you may not get it out of the pan in one piece.)

You can tell when the first side is done because little holes appear where the air bubbles have risen to the surface, also, the edges begin to turn solid. Flip them over and cook for another few minutes on the other side, until they are golden-brown.

I like to eat them hot, spread thinly with dairy-free chocolate spread. But they are also good cold on a picnic.

Banana muffins

80g gluten-free flour

70g oat flour (you can grind up oats to make oat flour)

1 tsp baking powder

Pinch of salt

2 tsp dark brown sugar

½ tsp cinnamon

100ml rapeseed oil

2 tsp maple syrup

6tblsp coconut milk

2 eggs

2 small bananas

Put all ingredients into a food processor and blend until smooth. Spoon mixture into muffin cases and bake for 20 minutes at 200°C. If you want to make slightly smaller muffins, you can use cup cake cases. In which case bake at 190°C for 15 minutes. Don’t worry when your muffins sink after you remove them from the oven, this is the effect of putting banana and oil in the mixture.

Caramelized Onion Cornbread

2 medium onions chopped

170g polenta

120g gluten-free flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 tsp brown sugar

2 tsp ground cumin

¼ tsp ground chilli flakes

250ml soya milk or coconut milk

2 eggs

3 tblsp olive oil

Caramelize the onions, adding 1 tsp of ground cumin and 1 tsp brown sugar. Leave to cool.

Mix dry ingredients together. Mix eggs, soya milk and olive oil together and stir into the flour mixture. Beat together until smooth. Add the cooled onions and spoon mixture into a greased 1 lb loaf tin. Bake for 35 mins at 200°C. Leave to cool in the tin for about 10 mins before turning out onto a rack to cool completely.

Fruit Crumble

110g demerara sugar

110g dairy-free margarine

60g polenta

220g oats

40g sunflower seeds

40g sesame seeds

800g cherries

1 small glass cherry liquer

Baking dish – 18cm x 24cm

Cream the margarine and sugar together in a large mixing bowl. Add the dry ingredients and mix well. Generously half-fill a baking dish with fruit. Sprinkle crumble topping over the fruit and bake at 170°C for about 40-45 minutes.

I was using frozen cherries, which we had harvested in May, stoned them and popped them in our freezer. I added a small glass of cherry liquer to the cherries before sprinkling on the topping. Other fruits which make a good crumble are:

Apple – Peel and core 3 large bramley apples. Cut half the apple into generous slices and half into small dice. Place in a saucepan with half a small glass of water and stew for about 10 minutes (when the finely chopped apple has pulped). Sweeten to taste. Pour into a baking dish and sprinkle on the crumble topping.

Plum – Prepare the plums as per cherries (see above) add sugar to taste.

Rhubarb – cut the sticks of rhubarb into pieces. Place in a saucepan with a very small amount of water, put the lid on the pan and stew for about 5 minutes, until soft. Add sugar to taste. Shake the pan rather than stirring to avoid breaking the rhubarb up. Pour into the baking dish and sprinkle on the crumble topping.

Gluten-free savoury oaty biscuits

I frequently use these biscuits as an alternative to bread or crispbread with my lunch, they go really well with cheese. (I am lucky that I can eat cheese made with goats milk or sheeps milk.) Also, parmesan seems to be OK for me, if you can't eat parmesan then you can substitute a hard sheeps cheese. I tried the recipe without cheese, but the resulting biscuits are so crumbly, they're almost impossible to eat.

110g gluten-free plain flour

110g oatmeal

2 tblsp grated parmesan

1 tsp soft brown sugar

1 tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

1 tsp curry powder

110g dairy-free margarine

A little water to make a dry dough

Put all ingredients into a food processor and mix until well combined add a little cold water until mixture just starts to stick together. Remove the processor blade then scoop out small amounts of dough and squeeze with your hands until you have a little ball of dough, flatten onto your lined baking tray. Sprinkle tops with a little chilli powder before baking for 15 mins at 180°C.

Gingerbread

                                                                       

100g gluten-free plain flour
75g rice flour

100g dairy-free margarine

25g soft brown sugar

½ tsp baking powder

2 dessertspoons apple puree

2 level tsp ground ginger

a little rice flour

Put all ingredients into a food processor and mix until well combined. Should be soft dough consistency. Turn out onto a floured sheet of greaseproof paper and roll out ( I used rice flour for this). Lift the greaseproof paper onto a baking tray and bake for about 20 mins at 180°C. Cut into portions while still warm.

Gluten-free, dairy-free, low sugar biscotti

After watching Paul Hollywood and Mary Berry making some biscotti on their Bakeoff Masterclass programme, I thought I'd have a go at making some gluten-free, dairy-free, low sugar biscotti.

250g gluten-free flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
70g caster sugar
3 eggs
85g dried cranberries
40g chopped dried apricots
2 tablespoons desiccated coconut

Put all the dry ingredients (except the dried fruit) into a food processor, whizz for a few seconds to combine. Add the eggs and process until you have a slightly sticky dough. Add the dried fruit and mix gently for a couple of seconds. Not long or the fruit will be pulverised and the final appearance will be ruined. Turn the dough out onto a surface dusted with rice flour (optional) and form into 2 logs about 4cm in diameter. Place on a lined baking tray and bake for 30-35 mins at 140°C.

Cool the logs for about 10 mins, then slice diagonally into 2cm slices and place back onto your baking tray and bake again for 10 mins each side.


Leave to cool completely.


These biscotti are not as hard as a typical Italian biscotti, I guess if you need them a bit harder, you could increase the time on your second bake.